Ongoing research

Who doesn't love the red flameskimmer dragonfly, Libellula saturata? If the Fourth of July had its own insect, it would be the firecracker red flameskimmer. It's so showy and eye-popping red that it almost looks patriotic.

Earlier this week, I received reports of two fields near Willows that showed evidence of armyworm feeding and very small worms in the plants. Today, I sampled a field that had some severe armyworm affected areas last year. At first sight, there was no evidence of injury.

Sand media filters are commonly used in agricultural microirrigation systems. They have the advantages of simplicity and large capacities and are favored by many farmers and designers over other filtration hardware when there is a lot of organic matter in the water.

The USDA ARS and California State Parks, Division of Boating and Waterways have initiated a study to address concerns that dissolved oxygen may be depleted by plant decomposition under herbicide-treated beds of water hyacinth.

Sometimes when you walk through a bee garden, you feel Mother Nature tugging at your arm, pulling you from one breathtaking area to another. You resist the tug and want to linger, to admire the diversity of bees, to marvel at the colors and patterns of the flowers.

It's good to see UC Davis mosquito researchers featured in the KQED's science program, "Deep Look." KQED journalists recently traveled to the UC Davis campus to visit several mosquito labs.

A crucial aspect to microsprinkler and dripper performance is maintaining the size of the orifice as it was delivered from the factory. Even small changes in the size of the orifice can have significant effects on the volume of water distributed in the orchard.

Did you know that Apple maps labels more cities than Google maps but Google labels more roads then Apple?

Kudos to Matt Holly, a member of the National Park Services (NPS) National Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate. Matt has been uploading all of the NPS maps into a single portal available online.

They're calling it "Bohart Belize Bioblitz," or "B-cubed" or "B to the 3." It's an insect collecting trip to Belize for the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis.